IBM Open Mic Webcast: What’s the Latest with Notes Traveler? – 24 April 2012

Posted on April 18, 2012 by notesbusters

I just received this in my in-box – definitely looks like something everybody should put into their calendars:

 

You are invited to join an Open Mic Webcast on the topic, “What’s the Latest with Notes Traveler?” ” After a presentation, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions directly of IBM developers and support engineers. You can post questions in advance of the call as a response to this entry in the Notes/Domino/Traveler forum.

The event will take place on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 11 a.m. EDT (15:00 UTC or GMT -4) for 60 minutes.

Bookmark Webcast Technote #7024152 Title:     What’s the Latest with Notes Traveler? – 24 April 2012
Doc #:  7024142
URL:     http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024152

Before the call, the technote will include:

      • NEW: An iCal attachment so you can add this event to your calendar
      • Details on how to join the call and web conference
      • The slides that will be presented during the session

A few weeks after the call, the technote will be updated to include:

      • A recording of the session
      • A written Q&A transcript

To be notified when the Webcast technote is updated, subscribe to IBM My Notifications and select “Webcasts” as a document type of interest.
Web Conference URL Web conference: Join an IBM SmartCloud Meetings (formerly LotusLive) web conference to view the presentation: Conference 6784422

http://www.ibm.com/collaboration/meeting/join?id=6784422
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Filed under: Domino, IBM, Lotus Software, Support | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Domino, WebSphere and why don’t my Friends get it yet

Posted on January 5, 2012 by notesbusters

As most people who know me in person can attest to, I usually am not at a loss for words. Some friends of mine actually have made a pact to kill my mouth separately after I die to make sure it goes to rest.  True friends will go to great lengths to take care of you … one way or another.

“The discussion”

I did find my inborn ability to fill the air with words challenged over the holidays when I engaged a good friend and collegue in a discussion about technology, future and IT work in general. We were griping a bit and the topic we were discussed was Domino and how the good paying jobs have become more scarce over the last 2 – 3 years. I imagine this topic gets repeated over and over again among many IT professionals.

To keep the whole thing short: I could not get the point across that as a Domino guy you have to see the writing on the wall and learn Websphere. More and more of Lotus IBM technology is now running on Websphere (Sametime, Connections, Quickr J . . .) and even if you don’t think that Domino will end up on that platform eventually, you need to add to your technology portfolio and make yourself more valuable. With Websphere in your back pocket you can do other projects as well. Add a dash of Unix and Linux experience … and you have the making of a nice Bouillabaisse. That Bouillabaisse will keep you fed for quite some time.

If you know a splatter of WAS – just to be able to integrade Domino with other Lotus IBM products – many of which are free entitlements to Domino licensees now – you have a whole larger pond you can swim in with more work to choose from with better rates and less competition.
I am a freelance IT consultant and started with Domino 18 years ago. I like it and do well and was lucky enough to have a nice year-long project I came off of in December and moved right into a new IBM Connections gig back-to-back.  But if you look out in the market and search for Notes/Domino projects they are getting fewer and fewer and pay less and less each year and the competition for those positions is quite fierce.

Yes, clients want oodles of experience and the knowledge you bring to the table but the price structure is not what it used to be. Look on LinkedIn and check how often you see somebody from India posting a question on how to “quickly learn Domino and maybe that thing called Notes” and you know where allot of the basic support jobs have gone to and what quality clients seem to be willing to live with nowadays. The only IT guys/girls working regularely now are either on the low end of the pay scale or the very top. If you are caught in the middle, the jobs you can find not as plentiful as they used to be and you are constantly searching, right?

Let me spell it out:

  • Change is good
  • Learning is a life-long necessity (damn – after all you did not learn Domino in elementary school, right?)
  • Expecting to do the same thing you are comfortable with for the next 20 years until you retire is not going to happen
  • WAS is not as hard as it looks – if you can take care of a Domino environment with all the moving parts and pieces WAS is not such a leap.

LEARN . IT . NOW . 

Filed under: Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Lotus Notes | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

IBM Unknown errors running utilities – United States

Posted on November 21, 2011 by notesbusters

Found this one looking through technotes today, really interesting. I often set up servers to run off-line maintenance on dB and often have servers running 32bit Domino on 64bit Windows. I have not yet run into a case where I noticed the additional errors that might pop up but is it good to now that I can ignore them.  I like my off-line maintenance routines and do not want to have to change them.

 

IBM Unknown errors running utilities – United States.

Filed under: 64 bit, Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Lotus Notes, Lotus Software | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Background Agents not running or how shortcuts can cost you in Domino

Posted on June 30, 2011 by notesbusters

I’ll keep it brief – short cuts will kill you.

 

I am on a Domino migration project where we are moving the client from 6.5.6 to 8.5.2. We are not upgrading servers but creating a whole new server environment on new virtual servers and will be moving applications over in phases. No mail, they moved to Exchange years ago.

We separated the development and sandbox environments out into new Domino domains (they were in production up until now) and we are in testing mode – each application individually.

That is where we ran into  … “issues” with simple background agents, specifically agents that send e-mail.

“Error connecting to server (servername): The remote server is not a known TCP/IP host,”

Agents fire, things happen and for the most part we are happy, but the above errors pop up again and again and mail is not being created. The mail never makes it into the mail.box, just errors in the logs and no mail at all.

This is where we came across this technote: and while reading it I am also glancing through the notes.ini on one of the servers that is having issues. I notice in there the “Mailserver=” parameter that has a different server name entered – that is where the above technote comes in and then a few Google searches on the [Mailserver] field and we knew where we had managed to trip ourselves in the process.

 

The [Mailserver] field

This is a little knows field since it has no UI equivalent and normally an admin would never have to fiddle with it – ever. However, when you take shortcuts during server setup and configuration though …. maybe you can guess? Yes, we set up one default server document, copied it 20 times, renamed the server name, updated all the server specific addresses and then copied the certificate into it. What that leaves you with is 20 server documents that all have the same one [Mailserver] field value – and the server that it pointed to was a temporary server that was turned off.

It took us a few hours of head scratching to figure this one out but by the end of the day we got it and fixed the field values on all servers. After that restarting the servers (not really necessary but I always feel better that way) took care of the rest and we were back in business.

Lesson learned: if you want to batch create and copy & paste things make sure you take care of ALL server specific information in a server document, not just the ones you can see in the document but the hidden ones as well.

Filed under: Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Lotus Notes | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Domino 8.5.2 HF1 – the fix for the unread synch server crash

Posted on January 3, 2011 by notesbusters

I would like to bring your attention to the SPR# RMAA88UAGF – server crashes when clients synchronize unread marks on Domino 8.5.2 servers.

I ran into this last week when we had some unexplainable server crashes for apparently no good reason – one of them happened when I was showing a help desk tech how to synchronize unread marks between replicas from the client. I investigated and the crash report that Domino gave me pointed me right to this error – now fixed in FP1. It is a regression bug and is not fixed in either of the previous hot fixes for the Domino 8.5.2 code stream. I had servers with both the SMTP patch and the interim fix (IF) as well – they all crashed at one time or another. I installed HF 1 on all servers and now they are safe from this issue – I tested it on all of them just to be on the safe side.

If you don’t have HF 1 installed yet – do it soon, this one can happen at anytime during  the day and there is no warning whatsoever. only a big “boom” when the server disappears from the face of the (electronic) earth. Incidentally, there are allot of other problems that are fixed in that HF as well – I suggest you look into it right away and consider upgrading all your Domino 8.5.2 servers soon.

Filed under: Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Lotus Software, Upgrades & Migrations | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Blackberry Express for Domino – Finally here

Posted on November 5, 2010 by notesbusters

I am not the first one to find this, I actually only noticed after going through my feeds and stumbling on it in Volker Weber’s blog . IT IS FINALLY HERE! We are now officially no longer the unwanted, redheaded stepchildren of RIM – we have our own BES Express server! Go here …

 

PS: with all this early stuff that VOWE knows, does he ever really work? The eternal questions never stop …. it’s all envy anyway! :)

Filed under: Blackberry, Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Lotus Software | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Domino on Linux: Upgrading to Domino 8.5.2 trouble -> FP are the cluprits

Posted on October 18, 2010 by notesbusters

I had been putzing around with my golf swing linux based Domino servers over the weekend. I did run into some issue with upgrading servers but because working my 3/4 pitch swing to the green looked so much more important to me (the weather was GORGEOUS!!) I put it off until later.

Fast forward to today and this is a new technote I just found in the IBM support stream:

IBM – Upgrading from a Notes 8.5.1 fixpack to Notes 8.5.2 for Linux rpm

To summarize quickly: If you have an existing 8.5.1 Domino server on Linux that has ANY FP installed – you will not be able to upgrade to 8.5.2 right away but will have to uninstall the FP to get back to a vintage 8.5.1 install. Once you are back to square eleven you will be able to run your upgrade just as you are used to it. Mind you, you DO NOT have to uninstall 8.5.1, you just have to get rid of your fixpack.

Once the weather goes bad and I don’t feel like working on that golf swing (or my scores on the course nosedive) I will go through the log files on my server I was working on and see if the error messages outlined in this technote match. I want to make sure it was not admin induced error or some other, unrelated issue.

Funny thing is: I have not heard from anybody in my network about this issue yet – has anybody run into it yet?Technorati Tags: , , ,

Filed under: Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Linux Related, Testing | 5 Comments »

Domino 8.5.1 Technote – Fixup can crash your server

Posted on October 14, 2010 by notesbusters

I came across this technote yesterday and investigated it right away …

- well, I’ll admit it – I asked somebody else in IBM to clarify some items for me and am now plagiarizing that good deed on my blog – THANKS CAROL!!

First of all – this only applies to Domino 8.5.1 on Windows, and it makes no difference which FP you are running since it was not fixed in FP4 nor will a fix be included in FP5 either, it is fixed in 8.5.2 though – you guys are safe.

 

The Issue Explained:

The issue CAN be cause by running FIXUP with a combination of either [fixup -F -J] or [fixup -F -J -O]. It will not automatically happen, it has to run into a document in a dB that has ‘invalid items” .. what exactly constitues such “invalid items” is not 100% clear but I am treating it like a 50-50 chance for failure until I have more evidence/experience or a better explanation of what exactly is meant with “invalid items”.

Exception:

Since the explanation implies that the behavior only happens if you also include the [-J] switch, servers that are not not transaction logged will not be affected, even if they are on Windows. Also, if you are running Domino on any other platform this will not affect you – so my dear Linux buddies are all safe, as are you AIX, iSeries and mainframers as well.

 

What does this mean in terms of daily admin work?

Well, the [-J] is needed anytime you want to run fixup against transaction-logged databases and [-F] is a very commonly used switch as  well. [-O] basically tells fixup to also run against open databases and is the default bahavior if you specify a database name with the fixup command.So the command [load fixup mail/xxx.nsf -J -F] implicitly includes the [-O] switch behavior whether you add it to the command or not.

That leaves you with the option to run Fixup without the [-F] switch to avoid a  *possible* kiss of death.

 

Advice:

if you are running the fixup command as part of some regular, automated script (I usually advise against it) you need to review the commands to make sure yo do not inadvertently crash your server (possibly, it is not a guaranteed outcome).

Also, when running Fixup against databases during the day to fix database corruption of any kind, I would run it without the [-F] switch during the day and see if your problem is fixed. If that does not fix your database problem, you can either roll the dice or wait until after hours – which is what I will do until I have tried it out a few times and have a better feel whether this actually ever materializes or not.

Filed under: Documentation, Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Domino Crashes – capture data for later support calls and how to treat the notes.ini nice

Posted on October 6, 2010 by notesbusters

I came across a technote (1447228 ) that was just updated – I actually have it in my personal knowledge dB where I keep allot of technotes that might be pertinent to the project I am working on at that time. The technote shows how to turn on debugging and the console log so that IBM support has some data to work with if you are dealing with a series of crashes.

I will not rehash the whole content of the technote but I want to point out one important topic: you do not have to restart the server for these settings to take effect – you can set them via the console.

Rule #1: never edit the notes.ini while the server is running.

I know it is technically possible (and easy to do) to use a text editing program to edit the notes.ini and more often than not it is not going to create trouble – however the Domino server relies heavily on this file and editing it without using the correct interface (= the server console) can cause the file to corrupt.

To us the notes.ini looks like a simple text file, for the Domino server it is a binary file that is expected to behave in a certain way. If the Domino server does not like the way the notes.ini just become corrupted then a whole lot of bodyly waste will hit the proverbial rotating blade and land on your lap.

The correct way to make ANY changes to the notes.ini WHILE THE DOMINO SERVER IS RUNNING is to use the [set config] command via the console. This rule is valid for all versions and OS releases of Domino. If the server is not running, you can use any text editor and make as many changes as you like, just keep the last line in the file an empty carriage return (= hit the enter key one) that is required.

Console Log and debugging information:

As the technote tells you, you need to turn the server console log on and enable debugging – AND you need to have NSD enabled via the server document.

If you are already dealing with outages, don’t bring the serve down once more – enable the settings via the server console:

start console log
set config DEBUG_THREADID=1

Incidentally, if you have an idea which part of the server is failing you can set additional debugging parameters for Domino via the server console as well.

Filed under: Domino, Lotus Software | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Ridding myself of Windows – Google Desktop for Lotus Notes and Linux

Posted on October 1, 2010 by notesbusters

Again, research, research – I came across this technote today:

IBM – Selecting Actions – Google Desktop for Lotus Notes yields error for Google Desktop plugin on Windows 7.

That reminded me of my current struggle of eliminating Windows from my laptop. Quick reminder – I don’t hate Windows, not do I knock is in personal or professional conversations at all – I just prefer Linux (currently Ubuntu 10.04, will upgrade to 10.10 S O O N) and I prefer not to pay allot of money for a first rate OS and all the software I want to use. I have another Windows Desktop at home, several servers and run Windows as a VM on my Linux machine when I need it.

Google Desktop:

First off let me say that I do applaud IBM for adding technotes about a product like Google Desktop that they don’t produce themselves – that is a great thing that I I hope they keep up.

I started using Google Desktop a few years ago and fell in love with it instantly. The native Windows search-your-desktop product regularly crashed my machine, and after I switched – I never looked back. I also Love the fact that IN WINDOWS it has a plug-in so that you can include your Lotus Notes based email in any search you are conducting. Brilliant! However, the Linux Google Desktop does not support this … sadly.

As to the why? Well, many reasons probably but the major one being the low number of Linux desktops that are used by real end-users out there and not just IT professionals.  For Google to put in the effort they are probably hoping for IBM to put more effort into that field.

David Gewirtz wrote a very interesting article in the Dominopower online magazine recently regarding this very topic. He made a very good point that the latest version of Lotus notes 8.5.2 is only certified to run on three distros: Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu. When it comes to Ubuntu – the most vibrant distro for desktops – the supported version is literally 2 years old. I have it running on the latest version (10.04) but I would never implement this in a customer environment as the desktop configuration would be unsupported by IBM.

Clearly, there is some room for more effort on IBM’s behalf to put some more resources into the Linux portion. I will even stop my griping about the lack of native Admin and Designer clients on Linux (note: my work-around tip is here)  and happily skip-and-jump down the yellow brick road for them. I will have to admit though there is a bit of a chicken and egg situation here: because there is not allot of pull by the market and free-bee extras (like Google Desktop Notes Mail integration) out there IBM is not pushing Linux nearly as hard as they could (or as I would wish them to – different matter I guess)  which in turn does not inspire other companies to put allot of effort into developing Linux variants of their products. Catch 22, viscous cycle, etc.

But clearly IBM is the one who would be able to make more waves in this field if they at least added more Linux distros to the supported list and – especially for Ubuntu – made sure they were not 2 versions behind. Or – novel idea – put out a time-line, schedule (or whatever) that shows where they intend to go with supported Linux versions, distros etc. AND they would have to put it someplace where it can actually be found … I searched but found nada. Just a few posts by TEB alone don’t make a compelling Linux argument. If you don’t have your information someplace where a Google search (or any other search provider) does not show it on page one or two of the results – it does not count. (note: I was searching for a good 30 minutes, that is longer than the average customer would be willing to spend time on a search)

** End of Linux-Griping for the day **

Filed under: Domino, IBM Lotus Notes Domino, Linux Related, Lotus Notes, Lotus Software | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

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